Precision Medicine will need to get out of the pharma silo that is based on symptoms

Welcome to the digital era of biology (and to this modest blog I started in early 2005).To cure many diseases, like cancer or cystic fibrosis, we will need to target genes (mutations, for ex.), not organs! I am convinced that the future of replacement medicine (organ transplant) is genomics (the science of the human genome). In 10 years we will be replacing (modifying) genes; not organs!

Only a few days left before Chinese new year... This means that a lot of (political) prisoners are being shot for their organs... right now... because, you see, in China, all the "sentenced to death" prisoners must be executed (shot) before Chinese New Year...

Need a new vital organ? This may be your chance, hurry!10% discount when mentioning this ad!

from the corruption-laundering dept

"We recently wrote about how Kim Dotcom has retained famed human rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam
to explore whether or not there's a human rights angle to his case,
specifically alleging 'contract prosecution' by the entertainment
industry. I'm still somewhat skeptical that such an argument could go
anywhere, but Amsterdam himself has put up a rather detailed blog post, explaining why he's taking the case,
which may seem quite different than his usual fare: taking on
corruption and human rights violations in far flung parts of the world,
including Africa and Latin America. After highlighting the many
problems with the case (and the continued failures in court to date), as
well as the close ties prosecutor Neil MacBride has with big copyright
holders, he points out that he sees some serious similarities to what's
happening here with the kind of corruption he's witnessed in third world
nations.

This case highlights not only the issue of 'state capture' by the
Hollywood lobby, but at the same time should lead to a thoughtful
discussion on how we define corruption. No one would venture to allege
that there is any form of cash payment taking place when official bodies
appear to act at the behest of special interests motives. Because
that’s not how these groups work.

It is a demonstration of the growing ambiguity of the lines between
regulators and the regulated, and the proper role of intellectual
property in the digital age. As we’ve seen in the sad and tragic case
of Aaron Swartz, for whom Prosecutor Carmen Ortiz was seeking 13
criminal charges and more than 50 years in jail, the American justice
system is increasingly flawed by this prosecutorial exuberance aimed at
future political reward.

It is one thing when the victims of these abuses are American citizens,
who live at the whim of an unaccountable prosecutorial machine driven by
personal political ambitions and an appetite for headlines. It is
something else entirely when these prosecutors visit their ambitions
upon foreign citizens, charging them with heinous crimes with no basis
under law, even if that person has never once set foot inside the United
States (like Kim Dotcom).

That is, he appears to be aware of the nature of corruption laundering
that's going on -- using the close connection between big businesses
and governments to create laws where people can make the case that
cracking down on some behavior is necessary to stop crime, but where the
details show it's really about cracking down on competition and
innovation.

And, he notes, this sort of activity is a huge stain on the US and the federal government:

With this attempt to 'colonize' the global internet under U.S. laws,
Washington is quickly making a bad name for itself, and putting its
considerable influence on the wrong side of digital rights, free
markets, and competitive innovation. They do this in the name of
protecting a broken business model, subsidizing monopolies, and seeking
to destroy crucial online functions instead of adapting to the
incredible opportunity afforded to them through mass connectivity. We
deserve better, we can do better, and everyone can benefit from a more
reasonable approach focused on the best interests of the public, not the
best interests of lobbyists and the politicians in their pockets.

We see this as a grand ideological debate with far-reaching
implications, and sadly, my lengthy experience in countries where
special interests control the levers of power may have some utility
here.

Even if there isn't a legal human rights angle, it should be interesting
to see what Amsterdam turns up. This growing recognition of how laws
are created to benefit legacy players, and then used against innovators,
is a real problem. Shining more light on that would be tremendously
helpful in actually promoting important innovations." (Source).

Here are some previsions for the Year of the Water Snake... I found them here...

OVERALL PROJECTION

"This is the tenth year of the Lower '8' Cycle of the world. Based on I-Jing, while the period between 1984 and 2043 (totaling 60 years) is 'Fire-Wind Urn', the year 2013 is 'Mountain-Thunder Rhythm'.

I-Jing Analysis'
'Mountain-Thunder Rhythm' contains 2 'Yang’s' to surround 4 'Yin’s'. While the outside seems to be solid, the inside is empty. Hence it is a year of conservation, a year of rebuilding and a year of changes.

Life Chart Analysis
This year is composed of 'water snake' year, 'wooden tiger' month, 'metal ox' day and 'earth rat' hour. While its year and month are in conflict, its day and hour connect. The year would begin with many uncertainties but end up on a high tune. There is an over-abundance of wood and fire, which become negative elements for the year. Elements of 'earth, metal and water' would serve the year better.Flying-Star Analysis
The '5-yellow' star is the controlling force of this year. This sign is a very turbulent one. It would bring the world to extremities – good or bad. Its nature is 'earth'. Countries in both south and north would do better than those in the east or west.China would control to lead the world’s economy. Western countries would continue to suffer from economic instabilities.
The following would outline an analysis of orientations, businesses, politics, economies, climates and health, totaling 6 important factors affecting all of us.

The 53 Nations of Africa have way too small a share of the world's trade: just 3% for 2010. Producing in that vast continent went at least some way to levelling that inequity... The brand is EDUN Americas and its mantra is compelling: "We carry the story of the people who make our clothes around with us."

An eco brand, that is, a sustainable, ethical luxury brand very much captures the "Zeitgeist" (especially in NY). What's behind the lofty or grand purpose, exactly? Janice Sullivan, CEO of EDUN, explains...

"As if the fashion business is not tough enough, Janice
Sullivan must also meet Bono and Ali Hewson’s lofty aims for a niche eco
label they founded to help lift Africa out of poverty.

There are times when I’m sitting with a Chief executive, who is
completely ‘on message’, brilliant at expressing the ‘pillars’ of the
brand and at talking through an impressive bottom line, yet I’m
thinking, 'Yes, but you could be selling paint.' There are other times –
rarer these – when I meet a CEO who is perhaps more tentative at first,
yet utterly equipped for the unique challenges of the fashion business.
A latter case is Janice Sullivan. As she puts it herself, 'I come from
the back room. I’m hands on. I am all about product.'Sullivan, an immaculate New York honey blonde in her mid 40s, does
not have an expensive MBA. Instead, she has a roll-up-your-sleeves
understanding of the logistics of making clothes and accessories in any
part of the world. She knows her fabrics; she can tell at a glance how
many you can cut of this and how long it is going to take to add
beading.
'I started out in production; [was] then in product development; then
in merchandising, then took over sales,' says Sullivan, who grew up on
the Jersey shore looking across to Manhattan and whose career in New
York City, until 18 months ago, involved switching back and forth
between Calvin Klein and Donna Karan as she climbed the ladder at two
iconic America brands. She was president of Calvin Klein Jeans when Mark
Weber, who helms the LVMH business in the US, (which these days
includes Donna Karan), asked her to take on a considerable challenge.
She is now the CEO of Edun."

"From next week, I’d like to return with renewed
determination to the field as an active researcher." Professor Yamanaka
at a press conference on 9th October, the day after he was awarded the
prize. Picture: AP/Aflo.

"The regeneration of organs with the use of one’s own cells is a medical dream that’s close to realization.

Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, who won the Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine in 2012, has for the first time in the world
generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells which can grow into any
tissue of the body from the skin. Researchers are currently carrying out
projects all over the world in order to, investigate the practical use
of iPS cells in medicine.
At the press conference after winning the prize, Professor Yamanaka
thanked people for cooperating with his research and expressed his
aspirations for the future, saying 'I’d like my research to be of use to
patients after it overcomes some safety concerns'."

Had a talk this morning with some consultant from BCG (Boston Consulting Group). It was about this European genome sequencing business, DNA Vision, based in Brussels, Belgium.

DNA's website mentions:

"The first next-generation sequencing system has been launched in 2005 by 454 and Roche. It has been continuously improved so far with the FLX system in 2007 and the Titanium chemistry in 2008.
DNAVision provides from deveral years high quality sequencing services using the Genome Sequencer FLX system (Roche).
This breakthrough technology, producing more than 1 Million reads of 450 nt per run, is particularly well-suited for several applications:
Metagenomics
Other applications
For more details about the Next Gen sequencing services at DNAVision, click here.
DNAvision provides flexible solutions on 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 plate combined with sample multiplexing through MID adapters. This flexibility is particularly interesting for de novo bacteria sequencing, metagenomic studies.
DNAVision's service with Roche Genome Sequencer FLX system
Up to 450Mb per run obtained for one to 192 samples
Flexibility in experimental design - partial plate sequencing is provided
Fast data turnaround - 10 hours per run
State-of-the-art bioinformatics support."
(Source)

Roche is a pharmaceutical lab selling immunosuppressive drugs. The company even got a "reward" for that... In 2010, for testing Cellcept, a transplant anti-rejection drug, in China... "The Public Eye Award in the category Swiss and People was given to the
Swiss health care-company Roche for the selling of the medicament 'Cell Cept'
in China, where over 90% of the organs for transplantation comes from
executed prisoners - against their own will." (Source).It is against Roche's own interests to help develop regenerative medicine and genomics, as these will make organ transplants from brain-dead patients redundant...( read here).... Or maybe Roche will orient its business towards some more innovative stuff, like using DNA to store digital information ?

"Technically, it's possible to store1 million CD's in one gram of DNA, for 10.000 years ! Will digital stuff find a new format? From silicium and binary system (0 and
1) to DNA and four-letter-language? (A,T,C,G: the four letters of our Homo Sapiens' Operating System). A change of civilisation?"

The BCG consultant says "Big Pharma" is having serious difficulties reorienting itself, from the molecule to the digitalized preventive medicine (genomics is 1% biology, 99% data: probability and statistics)... He gave me an example (case in point): Kodak, one of the worldwide leaders in argentic photography, used to have a "digital photo lab". Not exactly because they wanted to help develop digital photography. On the contrary: they wanted to make sure they'd be able to delay its progress...19th of Jan., 2012: Kodak is officially bankrupt...

Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload, has launched a new file-sharing website
a year after he was accused by US prosecutors of facilitating massive online
piracy said to have cost the entertainment industry $500m (£315m).

Kim Dotcom (Megaupload, Mega) wants to encrypt half of Internet: "Total government spying must stop!" He says Hollywood media are colluding with American government. This give and take relationship between politics (laws) and media results in a hidden assault on our civil rights. Except that in Kim's experience, the assault had nothing to do with "hidden". Megaupload shutdown had been spectacular. Staged like some Hollywood drama... Well, Kim is back... alive and kicking (some serious ass)... since, a few days ago, he has re-opened "Mega", but this time neither the government (or Hollywood) nor him can access the data on Mega. Everything's encrypted. On hence, Kim denies, more than ever, responsibility for major (Hollywood) copyright breach. Kim Dotcom's Mega service offers 50GB of data storage – and it is all perfectly legal.

What happened one year ago? Hollywood and the US government found Kim very dangerous and they wanted to "destroy" him once and for all. Kim got through by the skin of his teeth and is back stronger than ever, with... the biggest Internet disruption ever. Apple, Google have proven to be less dispruptive than Mega... Google provide various governments with the info they request. They are not exactly zealous about it, but they do as requested. If half of the Internet becomes encrypted, governments might find it much harder to spy on would be terrorists... Google artificial intelligence is building (and thriving) on the open Internet - not on the encrypted one... On the other hand, patients might be happy to put their medical data on Mega... no confidentiality breach... Mega could become a major competitor to Google +...This is the biggest disruption ever, nobody can tell about the consequences of an Internet (massive) encryption... Well I guess Kim didn't want to end up like AaronSwartz, a MIT student and Internet (public-access) activist, who thought information should be free... The question is: should violating a site's Terms of Service land you in jail ? (read here).

(U.S.) government(s) (and Hollywood) appear to have proven greedy... too greedy... Let's just hope that Kim's counter-attack will proceed otherwise (not just based on the same abuse of power)...

You may want to think about a new profession if you’re considering working in the food and service industry in China.... and I'm not talking about "Noodle Bot" here (a robot to make sliced-noodles)...

"The Robot Restaurant opened in Harbin [a Chinese city] in June and has taken the F&B industry in China further into the mechanized world. Robot Restaurant staffs a total of 20 robots as waiters, cooks and busboys. Turns out 'Noodle Bot' might need to expand its repertoire if it hopes to compete with Robot Restaurant’s 18 different kinds of service robots.

Upon arrival, Usher Robot welcomes customers to the restaurant and directs them to the seating area. Patrons can then place their order, which is relayed by humans to one of the four robot chefs who are able to cook various styles of dumplings and noodles. The robot chefs even determine the temperature and ingredients for each dish and usually take about 3 minutes to prepare the average order. These robot chefs are no slouches either. The kitchen staff is able to prepare a menu of over 30 dishes–perfect for a family dinner.
Waitress robots carry the food to customers by following a track that uses sensors placed under the floor for spatial awareness. Additionally, each robot comes equipped with its own sensors, helping it to avoid obstructions such as a kid that’s in its way.

The robots were designed and built by a local firm, the Harbin Haohai Robot Company. Each robot costs between 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese yuan (US$31,500 – US$47,000) with an additional 5 million yuan (US$790,000) invested into the restaurant itself. With the average Robot Restaurant meal costing less than 62 yuan (US$10), the restaurant is not meant to earn Harbin Haohai money. Instead, it turns out the restaurant is just a brilliant piece of marketing." (Source).

"London’s so-called 'Silicon Roundabout' east of downtown can appear
underwhelming. The attached Tube station is decrepit, the shops below
ground are tatty, and at night its psychogeography seems deliberately
designed to attract muggers and thieves.
It doesn’t get much better above the surface. Traffic swirls around
the unwieldy Old Street roundabout , which is dominated by a huge
billboard. Nearby City Road stretches north for a mile from the Thames
and the City of London, home to London’s banks and finance.
The cityscape is depressing. Nothing seems to have been built since
the area’s halcyon days of printing in the 1970s and 1980s, when it
served the newspaper industry on nearby Fleet Street. Here, it feels as
if it rains every day.

"Over recent years, in gift shops and online retailers, there has been an
explosion in one theme: ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Originally a poster
from Britain during the Second World War,
you can now buy the simple but reassuring message on almost anything,
ready for display in your house or office. There’s just one small
problem: the poster wasn’t used during the war, and hardly anyone ever
saw it. Thanks to doctoral research from Dr. Rebecca Lewis, we now know
the story.

The Unused Poster

In 1939, it became apparent to many people in Britain that a war on the continent was inevitable. Hitler
had broken promise after promise, and there seemed little chance he
wouldn’t take a decision which provoked war. To this end, Britain’s
Ministry of Information decided that one thing which might suffer during
the war, especially during the aerial bombardment many had calculated
would cause massive losses, was the civilian morale. To this end it was
decided – although not without objections – to create five million
morale boosting posters which could be quickly pasted up.
Designs were created, and three soon went into action. The first pair
bore the following messages: ‘Freedom is in Peril: Defend it with all
Your Might’, and ‘Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will
bring us Victory’. These were handed out while a third, the now iconic
‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ was held back to be used when the German
bombing campaign really bit. Other, more specific, posters were also
created, such as one explaining ‘Our Fighting Men Depend on You’, aimed
at docks and factories.
But the first period of the war passed without this bombing, and so Keep
Calm, all two and a half million copies, remained in storage. By the
time the Germans did start bombing Britain in the Blitz,
feedback had passed back to the Ministry that people didn’t like the
posters, that they found them patronising, so they were never used. The
Ministry had to defend itself against accusations of waste and
stupidity, and most Calm Calms were pulped, with only a rare few passed
into the hands of collectors and museums.

21st Century Icon

So why is this poster so well known in Britain, and growing popularity
elsewhere? In 2000, the owner of Barter Books purchased a box of
potential stock at an auction, and found an original Keep Calm and Carry
On poster at the bottom. He put it up behind the desk, and after being
inundated with requests, printed a few more, and then – after gaining
government permission – released a modern version. No trademark was
sought, and others jumped on the bandwagon. Thanks to Britain’s
nostalgia for the idea of plucky wartime Brits keeping calm, a twenty
first century icon was born out of a failed wartime idea barely anyone
actually saw. But thanks to the poster, and now the mugs etc. etc.,
people believe this was a key wartime edict. And, of course, people did
just what the poster said… just without the poster.
Dr. Lewis’ full Doctoral Thesis – ‘The Planning, Design and Reception of British Home Front Propaganda Posters of the Second World War’
- is available online under a Creative Commons licence here. She
maintains a blog tracking the murky legal battles which have sprung up
as people have chased the money." (Source).

The American (Donor) Dream (or nightmare)... Sooo... Plenty of organ donors in the US... should be a good news... "Many American cities have rates of gun homicides comparable to some of the most violent nations in the world." (Source).

Pic: Gad Berry, Photographer.

"The pattern is staggering. A number of U.S. cities have gun homicide rates in line with the most deadly nations in the world.

If it were a country, New Orleans (with a rate 62.1 gun murders per 100,000 people) would rank second in the world.

Detroit's gun homicide rate (35.9) is just a bit less than El Salvador (39.9).

Baltimore's rate (29.7) is not too far off that of Guatemala (34.8).

Gun murder in Newark (25.4) and Miami (23.7) is comparable to Colombia (27.1).

Washington D.C. (19) has a higher rate of gun homicide than Brazil (18.1).

Atlanta's rate (17.2) is about the same as South Africa (17).

Cleveland (17.4) has a higher rate than the Dominican Republic (16.3).

Gun murder in Buffalo (16.5) is similar to Panama (16.2).

Houston's rate (12.9) is slightly higher than Ecuador's (12.7).

Gun homicide in Chicago (11.6) is similar to Guyana (11.5).

Phoenix's rate (10.6) is slightly higher than Mexico (10).

Los Angeles (9.2) is comparable to the Philippines (8.9).

Boston rate (6.2) is higher than Nicaragua (5.9).

New York, where gun murders have declined to just four per 100,000, is still higher than Argentina (3).

Even the cities with the lowest homicide rates by American standards,
like San Jose and Austin, compare to Albania and Cambodia respectively.

Yes, it's true we are comparing American cities to nations. But most of
these countries here have relatively small populations, in many cases
comparable to large U.S. metros.
The sad reality is that many American cities have rates of gun
homicides comparable to the some of the most violent nations in the
world." (Source).

"What would happen to Hitler if he were alive today? What would he
make of contemporary multicultural society? How would people react to
him? Vermes dares to imagine the answers to these questions in his
humorous and intelligent satire, which envisions Hitler at large in
twenty-first century Berlin.

It is the spring of 2011. Hitler wakes up on an empty plot of land
in Berlin. He has a bit of a headache. He can’t remember anything after
being with Eva Braun in the bunker, so is somewhat confused to find
Berlin suddenly intact and not overrun with Russian soldiers. He wanders
the streets until a newsagent takes pity on him and lets him sleep in
his kiosk. People obviously recognise Hitler but they assume that he is a
comedian playing a role. His unintentionally hilarious monologues and
the way he never slips out of character cause a great deal of amusement.

Hitler is given a guest slot on the show of a Turkish-born comedy
star, Ali Wizgür, and instantly ups the ratings with his bitingly ironic
ethnic humour. He turns into a YouTube phenomenon, loved by today’s
youth. An influential tabloid newspaper proclaims its suspicion of
Hitler, until he manages to trick the journalists into giving him the
paper’s full, ingratiating support. From then on, the only way is up.
Hitler takes to the streets and interviews innocent passers-by on
topical subjects, whipping them into a fury over dog muck on the
pavements or speeding drivers. All of which makes for great TV. Hitler
makes a televised visit to the headquarters of Germany’s far-right
political party, the NPD. He is horrified by the lack of conviction
among the neo-Nazis he encounters there and showers the party leader
with insults. This interview wins Hitler a prestigious journalism prize –
for his satirical exposure of prejudice! The neo-Nazis are furious and
beat Hitler up. He winds up in hospital where he receives messages of
support and condolence from all sides. He is contacted by a publishing
house wanting to know whether he would like to write a book. Hitler
decides that, while he’s at it, he may as well start a political party
of his own...

The amusing scenarios generated by imagining Hitler in today’s
Berlin are given added depth by Vermes’ clever psychological
observations of people’s ridiculous behaviour when confronted with a
supposedly fake Adolf Hitler. He’s Back would be a bold and rewarding acquisition." (Source).

Public information campaigns on heart transplant are biaised. Mechanical circulatory support is a better option (even for elderly patients) than a transplant. Yet the info the broad public gets is all about heart transplant; nothing about mechanical circulatory support. How comes? Those campaigns are financed for up to 60% by "Big Pharma" (immunosuppressive drugs). When you get a transplant, you need the drug. When you get treated with mechanical circulatory support instead, you don't. Big Pharma has no interest in patient education on mechanical circulatory support...Heart surgeons should start thinking again: it's time they get involved in "patient education"...Somebody has to do the job "Big Pharma" is obviously not doing. Unless you call this "taking advantage" practice of theirs "patient education"... Medical liability includes the loss of chance doctrine. This legal rule applies to surgeons (not to Big Pharma)... Pascal Leprince MD, PhD,head of Cardiac Surgery Dpt, Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, is asking his peers: are we ready for a major paradigma shift? Are we ready to see mechanical circulatory support as "destination therapy" (no more transplant), instead of seeing it as bridge to heart transplant?...

Disruptive treatments are making an appearance: 3D-printed organs (bladder, skin, trachea, and soon... transplantable kidneys). Daily progress in genomics, bioengineering (3D-printed biological material, regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy) shows that software and computer are in the process to become essential to give sick patients better options... Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology and Cognitive science: nbic converging technologies. Big and small data (data censors), preventive medicine: does all of this means the death of "brain death" and replacement medicine as we know it today (with "fully biological" donors)?

Mechanical circulatory support in replacement of heart transplant for
old people? It works. Better than transplant. Surgeons know it as a
fact. And yet, they failed to inform the patients. This has been going
on for nearly a decade... As a consequence, mechanical circulatory
support remains underused (and transplant overrated, as a transplant is
not a cure), used only as "bridge to transplant", instead of replacing
the heart transplant (mechanical circulatory support as "destination
therapy")... Heart surgeons keep asking the transplant medicine
community: "Are we ready for this new paradigm, are we ready to
implement mechanical circulatory support instead of heart transplant?"
In France, Pascal Leprince MD, PhD, head of Cardiac Surgery Dpt, Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris,
suggests we aren't... He isn't the only one. Heart transplant has
always been the gondola head in organ donation public campaigns - quite a paradox, since wordlwide's most sought after transplant organ is (are)... kidneys.

Did
you know that "Big Pharma" (worldwide leader on the immunosuppressive
drug market) has been financing for decades - and for up to 60 percent
of the total cost of these campaigns! - numerous organ donation public
campaigns in many many countries (including the US and Europe, of
course)... Heart surgeons have never been involved in fundraising for
public information campaigns about mechanical circulatory support that
can be more effective than a heart transplant... It's time they start
thinking again... Medical liability includes the loss of chance
doctrine...

Editor of Genome Medicine, Rebecca Furlong, said "We are delighted that Genome Medicine's
success will be recognized with an Impact Factor, and would like to
thank our Section Editors, Editorial Board, and all our authors,
reviewers and readers for their support."

"Genome Medicine publishes peer-reviewed research articles, new
methods and software tools in all areas of medicine studied from a
post-genomic perspective. The journal also provides review and comment
on the latest advances in translational genomics and personalized
medicine, and their implications for the clinical and ethical management
of human health and disease."

Genome Medicine
leads the way in a long list of BioMed Central journals that have
recently been accepted for Impact Factor tracking by Thomson Reuters.
The newly tracked journals will soon appear on Web of Science, and
should receive their first Impact Factors in June this year.

TOKYO: "Researchers in Japan said (...) they have succeeded in growing human kidney tissue from stem cells for the first time in a potential breakthrough for millions with damaged organs who are dependent on dialysis.
Kidneys have a complex structure that is not easily repaired once damaged, but the latest findings put scientists on the road to helping a diseased or distressed organ fix itself.
Kenji Osafune of Kyoto University said his team had managed to take stem cells -- the 'blank slates' capable of being programmed to become any kind of cell in the body -- and nudge them specifically in the direction of kidney tissue.
'It was a very significant step,' he told AFP (French Press Agency).

Osafune said they had succeeded in generating intermediate mesoderm tissue from the stem cells, a middle point between the blank slate and the finished kidney tissue.
'There are about 200 types of cells in the human body, but this tissue grows into only three types of cells,' namely adrenal cells, reproductive gland cells and kidney cells, he said, adding that as much as 90 percent of cultures in their research developed into viable mesoderm tissue.
This embryonic intermediary can be grown either in test tubes or in a living host into specific kidney cells.

Osafune and his team created part of a urinary tubule, a small tube in the kidney that is used in the production of urine.
While the research is not aimed at growing an entire working kidney, he said the method his team had developed would help scientists learn more about intermediate mesoderm development and may provide a source of cells for regenerative therapy. 'I would say that we have arrived at the preliminary step on the road to the clinical level,' he said.
Osafune's research is published in online science journal Nature Communications." (Source).

Contact info: osafune-g@cira.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Because of Japanese rejection of brain-death criteria, alternatives to organ (kidney) transplant, such as regenerative medicine, are well sought after... Now wonder Japan has become a leeding country in stem cell therapy...

Group Chorus:
Wedding, a wedding, we're going to have a wedding, a wedding! (repeats)

Spider Chorus:
The spiders think you're very cute, but goodness knows you need a suit.
But have no fears, we're quite adept, we'll have you looking lovely(7Xs)yet.
A little stitch, a little tuck, some tender loving care.
A little thread will fix you up and we've got plenty as you see,
And personally guarantee our quality repairs.
A little here, a fix of this, We're going to do our very best.
When everybody sees you, they'll all be quite impressed.
They will all be quite impressed.
(Read the lyrics)

Yeah, and let's keep that to ourselves (power and information), says World 1.0...

Yeah, and let's share ... says World 2.0...

Are leakers of information criminals?

Swartz, a MIT student and Internet (public-access) activist, thought information should be free...

Until she was accused of driving the 26-year-old cyber wunderkind and public-access activist Aaron Swartz to suicide, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts was a liberal’s dream. You know what? This woman (U.S Attorney Carmen Ortiz ) is just too much. Bigoted. The Inquisition is not dead, it has morphed...

At other times, this young man would have been a hero, or a pirate (probably pretty much exactly amounts to the same thing) ... never would he have been forced to take... his own life... Aaron Swartz wanted to create some sort of Academic Wikipedia, enabling people to access the MIT academic database by just accessing the Internet... To cut it short, Swartz did what I would have done had I been gutsy and brainy... American legals have gone crazy over this "copyright" thing... Which role exactly did the MIT play in this sorry story? I'm eager to hear aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (graduated from MIT) discuss this, and so are... 12.83 million viewers...

"We can rightly judge a society by how it treats its eccentrics and deviant geniuses—and by that measure, we have utterly failed.
I knew Swartz, although not well. And while he was special on account
of his programming abilities, in another way he was not special at all:
he was just another young man compelled to act rashly when he felt
strongly, regardless of the rules. In another time, a man with Swartz’s
dark drive would have headed to the frontier. Perhaps he would have
ventured out into the wilderness, like T. E. Lawrence or John Muir, or
to the top of something death-defying, like Reinhold Messner or Philippe
Petit. Swartz possessed a self-destructive drive toward actions that
felt right to him, but that were also defiant and, potentially,
law-breaking. Like Henry David Thoreau, he chased his own dreams, and he
was willing to disobey laws he considered unjust.

Swartz’s frontier was not geographic like
Thoreau’s, but defined by other barriers unique to our times. His form
of civil disobedience consisted of heading into an M.I.T. closet with a
laptop, hooking it up to the Internet, and downloading millions of
articles from JSTOR, an academic database. Swartz thought
information should be free. It wasn’t a major coup, but it counts as a
defiant act—and one that made its point, for it was, and remains,
absurdly hard for the public to gain access to what academics supposedly
write for it.
The act was harmless—not in the sense of hypothetical damages or the
circular logic of deterrence theory (that’s lawyerly logic), but in John
Stuart Mill’s sense, meaning that there was no actual physical harm,
nor actual economic harm. The leak was found and plugged; JSTOR
suffered no actual economic loss. It did not press charges. Like a pie
in the face, Swartz’s act was annoying to its victim, but of no lasting
consequence.
In this sense, Swartz must be compared to two other eccentric
geniuses, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who, in the nineteen-seventies,
committed crimes similar to, but more economically damaging than,
Swartz’s. Those two men hacked A.T. & T.’s telephone system to make
free long-distance calls, and actually sold the illegal devices (blue
boxes) to make cash. Their mentor, John Draper, did go to jail for a few
months (where he wrote one of the world’s first word processors), but
Jobs and Wozniak were never prosecuted. Instead, they got bored of
phreaking and built a computer. The great ones almost always operate at
the edge.
That was then. In our age, armed with laws passed in the
nineteen-eighties and meant for serious criminals, the federal
prosecutor Carmen Ortiz approved a felony indictment that originally
demanded up to thirty-five years in prison. Worse still, her legal
authority to take down Swartz was shaky. Just last year, the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a similar prosecution. Chief Judge
Alex Kozinski, a prominent conservative, refused to read the law in a
way that would make a criminal of “everyone who uses a computer in
violation of computer use restrictions—which may well include everyone
who uses a computer.” Ortiz and her lawyers relied on that reading to
target one of our best and brightest.
It’s one thing to stretch the law to stop a criminal syndicate or
terrorist organization. It’s quite another when prosecuting a reckless
young man. The prosecutors forgot that, as public officials, their job
isn’t to try and win at all costs but to use the awesome power of
criminal law to protect the public from actual harm. Ortiz has not
commented on the case. But, had she been in charge when Jobs and Wozniak
were breaking the laws, we might never have had Apple computers. It was
at this moment that our legal system and our society utterly failed.
Defenders of the prosecution seem to think that anyone charged with a
felony must somehow deserve punishment. That idea can only be sustained
without actual exposure to the legal system. Yes, most of the time
prosecutors do chase actual wrongdoers, but today our criminal laws are
so expansive that most people of any vigor and spirit can be found to
violate them in some way. Basically, under American law, anyone
interesting is a felon. The prosecutors, not the law, decide who
deserves punishment.
Today, prosecutors feel they have license to treat leakers of
information like crime lords or terrorists. In an age when our frontiers
are digital, the criminal system threatens something intangible but
incredibly valuable. It threatens youthful vigor, difference in outlook,
the freedom to break some rules and not be condemned or ruined for the
rest of your life. Swartz was a passionate eccentric who could have been
one of the great innovators and creators of our future. Now we will
never know."

"On Friday, Internet pioneer and open information activist Aaron Swartztook his own life at the age of 26. At the time of his death, Swartz was under indictment for logging into JSTOR, a database of scholarly articles, and rapidly downloading those articles with the intent to make them public. If Swartz had lived to be convicted of the charges against him, he faced 50 years or more in a federal prison.
To put these charges in perspective, here are ten examples of federal
crimes that carry lesser prison sentences than Swartz’ alleged crime of
downloading academic articles in an effort to make knowledge widely
available to the public:

Manslaughter: Federal law provides that someone who kills another human being “[u]pon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion” faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if subject to federal jurisdiction. The lesser crime of involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of only six years.

Bank Robbery: A person who “by force and violence, or by intimidation” robs a bank faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
If the criminal “assaults any person, or puts in jeopardy the life of
any person by the use of a dangerous weapon or device,” this sentence is
upped to a maximum of 25 years.

Selling Child Pornography: The maximum prison
sentence for a first-time offender who “knowingly sells or possesses
with intent to sell” child pornography in interstate commerce is 20 years.
Significantly, the only way to produce child porn is to sexually molest
a child, which means that such a criminal is literally profiting off of
child rape or sexual abuse.

Knowingly Spreading AIDS: A person who “after
testing positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and
receiving actual notice of that fact, knowingly donates or sells, or
knowingly attempts to donate or sell, blood, semen, tissues, organs, or
other bodily fluids for use by another, except as determined necessary
for medical research or testing” faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Selling Slaves: Under federal law, a person who willfully sells another person “into any condition of involuntary servitude” faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, although the penalty can be much higher if the slaver’s actions involve kidnapping, sexual abuse or an attempt to kill.

Genocidal Eugenics: A person who “imposes measures
intended to prevent births” within a particular racial, ethnic or
religious group or who “subjects the group to conditions of life that
are intended to cause the physical destruction of the group in whole or
in part” faces a maximum prison term of 20 years, provided their actions did not result in a death.

Helping al-Qaeda Develop A Nuclear Weapon: A person
who “willfully participates in or knowingly provides material support
or resources . . . to a nuclear weapons program or other weapons of mass
destruction program of a foreign terrorist power, or attempts or
conspires to do so, shall be imprisoned for not more than 20 years.”

Violence At International Airports: Someone who
uses a weapon to “perform[] an act of violence against a person at an
airport serving international civil aviation that causes or is likely to
cause serious bodily injury” faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years if their actions do not result in a death.

Threatening The President: A person who threatens to kill the President, the President-elect, the Vice President or the Vice President-elect faces a maximum prison term of 5 years.

Assaulting A Supreme Court Justice: Assaults
against very senior government officials, including Members of Congress,
cabinet secretaries or Supreme Court justices are punished by a maximum prison sentence of just one year. If the assault “involved the use of a dangerous weapon, or personal injury results,” the maximum prison term is 10 years.

It should be noted that Swartz faced such a stiff sentence because prosecutors charged him with multiple federal crimes
arising out of his efforts to download and distribute academic papers.
Similarly, a person who robbed a bank, sold a slave, and then rounded
out their day by breaking Justice Scalia’s nose would also risk spending
the next 50 years in prison, just like Aaron Swartz did.
Indeed, if Swartz’s story reveals anything, it is the power of
prosecutors to pressure defendants into plea bargains by stringing
multiple criminal charges together and threatening outlandish prison
sentences. Whatever one thinks of Swartz’s actions, which were likely illegal and probably should be illegal,
it is difficult to justify treating him as if he were a more dangerous
criminal than someone who flies into a rage and kills their own brother." (Source).

Who are you?

In March 2005, I've initiated a blog about bioethics. Organ replacement technologies and genomics are part of today's sustainable health economics. This is not medicine under ideological pressure ! ...